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Saturday, September 24, 2011

GROUNDNUTS

Harish came back home after his daily
afternoon walk. He had gotten a box of Dairy Milk Eclairs, his grand-daughter’s
favorite. He said a “hi” to his wife and went directly to the kitchen. He
quickly made 2 cups of fresh ginger tea and took them out to the balcony. He
looked at his beautiful wife who was sitting on his table in the living room,
smiling radiantly at him. Harish and Saraswati have had 35 glorious years of
togetherness in complete bliss. Every evening Harish would make 2 cups of her
favorite ginger tea and then they would sit in the balcony on their easy-chairs
and spend an hour reliving their fond memories of the day and engaging in sweet
nothings.

2 years had gone by since the day
she broke their promise of dying together. Harish had never imagined a life
without her. He didn’t want to. So every single day, Harish would make 2 cups
of tea and sit in the balcony looking at her photo and would talk to her
gleaming eyes and tell her how empty his life had become. Everyday Harish’s reminiscence
of his beautiful past with Saraswati reminded of his wretched present. “How
could you leave me alone?”, he would lament.

Today he was looking back at his
day and all he could see was vacuum. His son and his daughter-in-law were busy
in their own lives and had no time for an old man. He also had silently resigned to a life of
non-existence. He found it easier to believe that they had a lot of love for
him but didn’t express it enough. He was content with the fact there was always
Saraswati smiling at him from the photo and the skies. The only thing he now
looked forward to was his cute little grand daughter. Everyday she would hug
him and kiss him before she ran off to school. Then he would wait for her to
come back and repeat that ceremony. Sadly for him today, even that didn’t
happen. Radhika had ran away to school oblivious of his presence. He felt she
was growing up!

He was feeling very restless today.
He could not read the newspaper because his glasses were old and overdue for
replacement. “Dad, please manage for a couple of weeks. I am quite busy now.
Will get you new ones after my business trip late next week”, his son Raghav
had reluctantly agreed to do him a favor. Harish felt a lost opportunity to
kill 2 hours of his dying life. Complete emptiness was driving him crazy and it
made him even more nostalgic about Saraswati. He felt a deep urge to read her letters
to him when they had fallen in love. He went to the store room (he no longer
had a room for himself) and started digging through the dust. After an hour
long excavation, he found nothing. His heart missed a beat. “Did they throw it
away”, he sulked.

He came back with a heavy heart
and resigned to his loneliness when his grand-daughter came running in. She
seemed happy to be back from school. She gave him a smile on the way. That was
an oasis in his day at the desert. She freshened up and then came back to him.
She was hiding something with her hands behind the back. She came close to
Harish and gave him a pack of freshly roasted groundnuts she had gotten from
the roadside. Harish loved groundnuts ever since he was a small boy. His heart
smiled. That was enough happiness for a week!

But then she had much more.
“Grandpaa.. I have got a book for you. And since Dad is not getting you your glasses,
I will read it for you. Listen carefully okay..”, she went on. Harish was
looking at her like a small child when she started reading Saraswati’s first
letter to him. His joy knew no bounds. Happiness had bid him goodbye at his
wife’s demise. But today Radhika had brought it home with her. She had taken
all the letters and made it into a beautiful book.

Harish hugged her tight.
Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He couldn’t find words. He didn’t have to. At that moment Harish saw Saraswati in the gleaming
eyes of his grand daughter. He realized that she had not gone anywhere!

to be frank, this is a theme overly-used everywhere - whether in fiction, movies, poems etc - so obviously we know where this is going while we are reading itso to be able to make the reader feel the pain of the grieving man is quite an achievement in in tself

i think the placement of that line, "2 years had gone by since the day she broke their promise of dying together." was perfect. the line itself evokes sadness and the point at which it comes is well-timed.